1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to computer systems and more particularly to multi-core computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, the number of central processing unit (CPU) cores (i.e., processor cores) and/or processors included within a computing system is increasing rapidly. Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary computing system 100 includes multiple processors 102, each of which includes one or more processor cores (e.g., processor cores 104). Processors 102 are coupled to other processors 102, memory 106, devices 108, and storage 110 by one or more hub integrated circuits (e.g., memory controller hub and I/O controller hub), bus (e.g., PCI bus, ISA bus, and SMBus), other suitable communication interfaces, or combinations thereof. An operating system (e.g., Microsoft Windows, Linux, and UNIX) provides an interface between the hardware and a user (i.e., computing applications, e.g., applications 114). Execution of operating system 112 may be distributed across a plurality of cores 104.
Although a computing system includes multiple processor cores, a typical computing system may not be able to utilize all processor cores or utilize all processor cores efficiently. For example, an operating system may be able to access and control only a limited number of CPU cores, leaving idle other cores in the computing system.